1zic(1M) System Administration Commands zic(1M)
2
6 zic - time zone compiler
7
9 zic [--version] [-s] [-v] [-l localtime] [-p posixrules]
10 [-d directory] [-y yearistype] [filename]...
11
14 zic reads text from the file(s) named on the command line and creates
15 the time conversion information files specified in this input. If a
16 filename is '−', the standard input is read.
17 Input lines are made up of fields. Fields are separated by any number
20 of white space characters. Leading and trailing white space on input
21 lines is ignored. A pound sign (#) indicates a comment that extends to
22 the end of the line. White space characters and pound signs can be
23 enclosed within double quotes (" ") if they are to be used as part of a
24 field. Any line that is blank (after comment stripping) is ignored.
25 Non-blank lines are expected to be of one of three types: rule lines,
26 zone lines, or link lines.
27 Rule
29 A rule line has the form:
30 For example:
33 Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S
35 The fields that make up a rule line are:
40 Rule USA 1969 1973 - Apr lastSun 2:00 1:00 D
42 NAME Gives the (arbitrary) name of the set of rules this rule is
46 part of.
47 FROM Gives the first year in which the rule applies. The word
50 minimum (or an abbreviation) means the minimum year with a
51 representable time value. The word maximum (or an abbrevia‐
52 tion) means the maximum year with a representable time
53 value.
54 TO Gives the final year in which the rule applies. In addition
57 to minimum and maximum (as above), the word only (or an
58 abbreviation) can be used to repeat the value of the FROM
59 field.
60 TYPE Gives the type of year in which the rule applies. If TYPE
63 is:
64 '−' The rule applies in all years between FROM
66 and TO, inclusive.
67 uspres The rule applies in U.S. Presidential elec‐
70 tion years.
71 nonpres The rule applies in years other than U.S.
74 Presidential election years.
75 even The rule applies to even-numbered years.
78 odd The rule applies to odd-numbered years.
81 If TYPE is something else, then zic will attempt to execute
83 the command
84 yearistype year type
86 to check the type of a year: an exit status of 0 means that
89 the year is of the given type; an exit status of 1 means
90 that the year is not of the given type. The yearistype com‐
91 mand is not currently provided in the Solaris environment.
92 IN Names the month in which the rule takes effect. Month names
95 can be abbreviated.
96 ON Gives the day on which the rule takes effect. Recognized
99 forms include:
100 5 the fifth day of the month
102 lastSun The last Sunday in the month
105 lastMon The last Monday in the month
108 Sun>=8 First Sunday on or after the eighth
111 Sun<=25 Last Sunday on or before the 25th
114 Names of days of the week can be abbreviated or spelled out
116 in full. Note: There cannot be spaces within the ON field.
117 AT Gives the time of day at which the rule takes effect. Rec‐
120 ognized forms include:
121 2 Time in hours
123 2:00 Time in hours and minutes
126 15:00 24-hour format time (for times after noon)
129 1:28:14 Time in hours, minutes, and seconds, where hour
132 0 is midnight at the start of the day and hour
133 24 is midnight at the end of the day.
134 Any of these forms can be followed by the letter w if the
136 given time is local "wall clock" time; s if the given time
137 is local "standard" time; or u (or g or z) if the given
138 time is universal time. In the absence of an indicator,
139 wall clock time is assumed.
140 SAVE Gives the amount of time to be added to local standard time
143 when the rule is in effect. This field has the same format
144 as the AT field (without the w and s suffixes).
145 LETTER/S Gives the "variable part" (for example, the "S" or "D" in
148 "EST" or "EDT" of time zone abbreviations to be used when
149 this rule is in effect. If this field is '−', the variable
150 part is null.
151 Zone
154 A zone line has the form:
155 Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES/SAVE FORMAT [UNTIL]
157 For example:
162 Zone Australia/SouthWest 9:30 - CST 1992 Mar 15 12:00
164 8:30 Aus CST
165 The fields that make up a zone line are:
170 NAME The name of the time zone. This is the name used in cre‐
172 ating the time conversion information file for the zone.
173 GMTOFF The amount of time to add to UTC to get standard time in
176 this zone. This field has the same format as the AT and
177 SAVE fields of rule lines; begin the field with a minus
178 sign to subtract time from UTC.
179 RULES/SAVE The name of the rule(s) that apply in the time zone or,
182 alternately, an amount of time to add to local standard
183 time. If this field is `−', then standard time always
184 applies in the time zone.
185 FORMAT The format for time zone abbreviations in this time zone.
188 The pair of characters %s is used to show where the
189 "variable part" of the time zone abbreviation goes.
190 Alternately, a slash (/) separates standard and daylight
191 abbreviations.
192 UNTIL The time at which the UTC offset or the rule(s) change
195 for a location. It is specified as a year, a month, a
196 day, and a time of day. The time of day has the same for‐
197 mat as the AT field of rule lines. If this is specified,
198 the time zone information is generated from the given UTC
199 offset and rule change until the time specified.
200 The month, day, and time of day have the same format as
202 the IN, ON, and AT columns of a rule; trailing columns
203 can be omitted, and default to the earliest possible
204 value for the missing columns.
205 The next line must be a "continuation" line. This line
207 has the same form as a zone line except that the string
208 "Zone" and the name are omitted. The continuation line
209 places information starting at the time specified as the
210 UNTIL field in the previous line in the file used by the
211 previous line. Continuation lines can contain an UNTIL
212 field, just as zone lines do, indicating that the next
213 line is a further continuation.
214 Link
217 A link line has the form:
218 Link LINK-FROM LINK-TO
220 For example:
225 Link Europe/Istanbul Asia/Istanbul
227 The LINK-FROM field should appear as the NAME field in some zone line;
232 the LINK-TO field is used as an alternate name for that zone.
233 Except for continuation lines, lines can appear in any order in the
236 input.
237
239 --version Outputs version information and exits.
240 -d directory Creates time conversion information files in the
243 directory directory rather than in the standard direc‐
244 tory /usr/share/lib/zoneinfo.
245 -l localtime Uses the given time zone as local time localtime. zic
248 acts as if the file contained a link line of the form:
249 Link localtime localtime
251 -p posixrules Uses the rules of the given time zone posixrules when
256 handling POSIX-format time zone environment variables.
257 zic acts as if the input contained a link line of the
258 form:
259 Link posixrules posixrules
261 This option is not used by ctime(3C) and mktime(3C) in
264 the Solaris environment.
265 -s Limits time values stored in output files to values
268 that are the same whether they are taken to be signed
269 or unsigned. You can use this option to generate SVVS-
270 compatible files.
271 This option is obsolete and may be removed in a future
273 release.
274 -v Complains if a year that appears in a data file is
277 outside the range of years representable by system
278 time values (0:00:00 a.m. UTC, January 1, 1970, to
279 3:14:07 a.m. UTC, January 19, 2038). This option also
280 complains if a time of 24:00 (which cannot be han‐
281 dled by pre-1998 versions of zic) appears in the
282 input.
283 -y yearistype Uses the given command yearistype rather than
286 yearistype when checking year types (see Rules under
287 DESCRIPTION).
288
291 filename A file containing input lines that specify the time conver‐
292 sion information files to be created. If a filename is '−',
293 the standard input is read.
294
297 /usr/share/lib/zoneinfo
298 Standard directory used for created files
300 /usr/share/lib/zoneinfo/src
303 Directory containing source files
305
308 See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
309 ┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
314 │ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
315 ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
316 │Availability │SUNWcsu │
317 ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
318 │Interface Stability │Committed* │
319 └─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
320 * The -s option is obsolete.
323
325 time(1), zdump(1M), ctime(3C), mktime(3C), attributes(5)
326
328 For areas with more than two types of local time, you might need to use
329 local standard time in the AT field of the earliest transition time's
330 rule to ensure that the earliest transition time recorded in the com‐
331 piled file is correct.
332 If the current timezone file is edited and compiled using the "zic"
335 command, the changes will only be reflected in any new processes that
336 are running. The most accurate way to reflect the changes for the
337 whole system would be a reboot.
338SunOS 5.11 3 Jan 2006 zic(1M)